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Close All Tabs: Daily Summaries Delivered
by KQED
Ever wonder where the internet stops and IRL begins? Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. From internet trends to AI slop to the politics of memes, Close All Tabs covers it all. How will AI change our jobs and lives? Is the government watching what I post? Is there life beyond TikTok? Host Morgan Sung pulls from experts, the audience, and history to add context to the trends and depth to the memes. And she’ll wrestle with as many browser tabs as it takes to explain the cultural moment we’re all collectively living. Morgan Sung is a tech journalist whose work covers the range of absurdity and brilliance that is the internet. Her beat has evolved into an exploration of social platforms and how they shape real-world culture. She has written for TechCrunch, NBC News, Mashable, BuzzFeed News and more.
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- Yesterday1h 7m
Cursed All Tabs: Portals, Creepy Caves, Jumpscares and Haunted Objects
In this special Halloween edition of Close All Tabs, we’re diving into creepypastas: horror stories that spread online until they become urban legends on their own. What happened to the girl who fell into a mirror in 2001? Did Ted the Caver ever come back to the surface? Was the Momo challenge real? And finally, we venture into eBay’s haunted doll marketplace … where we may have ended up with a spirit wreaking havoc on the production of this episode. It’s a ghoulish good time. Guests: Hallie Tut, visual effects artist, and digital content creator Craig Groshek, horror author and founder of Chilling Tales for Dark Nights Ted Hegemann, author of "Ted the Caver” Rena Lee, social media manager Sophia Bruno, middle school program coordinator Paranormal Teej, haunted doll collector & paranormal investigator Further Reading/Listening: How She Creates VFX Shots That Break Your Brain — Hallie Tut, Youtube Momo (Creepypasta) — Villains Wiki Momo Challenge Is Everything That’s Wrong with the Internet — Lance Ulanoff, Medium Ubume — Yokai.com How 'Momo', a global social media hoax about a paranormal threat to kids, morphed into a U.S. viral phenomenon — Ben Collins and Shoshana Wodinsky, NBC News Finally, the truth behind the 'haunted' Dybbuk Box can be revealed — Inverse The witches of eBay: Inside the industry selling haunted items online — Daniella Scott, Cosmopolitan The Backrooms: How Kane Parsons turned creepypasta into cinema — Jack Mills, Dazed The Eerie Backstory Behind Backrooms — Nadira Goffe, Slate Revisiting Creepypasta, the Social Horror Craze That Launched Slenderman — Zac Thompson, VICE Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional production by Cayla Mihalovich. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard and Chris Egusa. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 1 weeks ago37 min
“Sister, yesss!” What’s Behind the Viral Nun Podcast?
This year’s internet breakout star was an order of Catholic sisters with a podcast. Within weeks of launching, Dominican Sisters Open Mic went mega viral. Clips and fan edits of host Sister Miriam saying “Sister, yesss!” spread across social media. Secular women’s magazines and Catholic media alike dubbed this year a “nun girl summer.” At the same time, some have criticized the order behind the podcast for the conservative ideology baked into its educational content. In this episode, we explore how the Dominican Sisters of Mary rose to viral fame, the beliefs behind their easy charm and infectious laughter, and what it all says about the cultural moment we’re in. Guests: Paul Dailey, director of marketing at Openlight Media Sister Thu T. Do, Sister of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Hanoi and Research Associate at the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, Georgetown University Dr. Tricia Bruce, Sociology of Religion and Director of Social Science Research, Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies Matthew Remski, religion and politics journalist, co-host of Conspirituality and author of Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times Further Reading/Listening: Don’t Call Them Nuns. They’re Podcasters. — Madison Malone Kircher, NYT Why Are So Many People Listening to a Podcast About Living in a Convent? — Luis Parrales, The Atlantic The TikTok Nuns Have Everyone in a Chokehold — Christen A. Johnson, Cosmopolitan The Next Hot Trend Might Just Be ‘Nun Girl Summer’ — Amy Glover, Huffington Post Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional production by Cayla Mihalovich. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 2 weeks ago25 min
Are Chatbots Harming Our Relationships? | Close All Tabs Presents
Humans are complicated, and relationships can be messy, so it may be no surprise that people are falling in love with chatbots. They are available 24/7, hang on your every word and never ask anything of you. Amelia Miller, a human-AI relationship coach, sees danger in our reliance on bots for intimacy and companionship. Guest: Amelia Miller, human-AI relationship coach; fellow, Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center Further Reading/Listening: Are Chatbots Harming Our Relationships? — Lesley McClurg, KQED Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional production by Cayla Mihalovich. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 3 weeks ago40 min
Influencers Are Peddling Peptides, but Is Tanmaxxing Worth the Risk?
Seems like everywhere you turn these days, influencers are gushing about their peptide use and how it’s done wonders for their appearance and health. One of the more popular ones, Melanotan II, also known as the “Barbie” peptide, is said to give you a tan without the harmful effects of sun exposure. But many of these substances aren’t approved by the FDA and are often sold through unregulated gray market sources. So, how safe is any of this stuff? And what does the peptide boom tell us about the risks people will take in the name of “looksmaxxing?” Morgan talks to skin cancer surgeon Dr. Sungat Grewal and board certified dermatologist Dr. Caren Campbell about the risks of taking peptides. Then Morgan and STAT News reporter Sarah Todd break down how American medical libertarianism and the MAHA movement led us to this very point in time. Guests: Dr. Sungat Grewal, double board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon Dr. Caren Campbell, board-certified dermatologist Sarah Todd, reporter for STAT News Further Reading/Listening: What the peptide craze reveals about Americans’ relationship with risk — Sarah Todd, STAT News FDA advisory panel narrowly rejects compounding of one peptide, backs two others — Lizzy Lawrence and Sarah Todd, STAT News FDA panel backs compounded BPC-157, KPV peptides in win for RFK Jr. — Sarah Todd and Lizzy Lawrence, STAT News What the peptide craze reveals about Americans’ relationship with risk — Sarah Todd, STAT News Is Tanmaxxing an Addiction? A Dermatologist and Psychologist Explains — Katie Berohn, ELLE Inside the Weird New World of Peptide Tanning — Savannah Sobrevilla, GQ Melanotan: The "Barbie drug" tanning peptide, explained — Carly Mallenbaum, Axios Inside the Viral Tanning Peptide That Accidentally Created Vyleesi’s FDA-Approved Low Sex Drive Drug — Sara Kitnick, LA Times The FDA May Reverse a Ban on 14 Injectable Peptides—What That Means For the Beauty Industry — Kara Nesvig, Allure The Skin Cancer Foundation Issues Warning Regarding Melanotan II — Deborah S. Sarnoff, MD, Skin Cancer Foundation Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional production by Cayla Mihalovich. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- 4 weeks ago35 min
Can We Cool Data Centers With… Pee?
People really seem to hate data centers. And the more people learn about the amount of resources these server-packed buildings need, the bigger the backlash grows. Perhaps that’s why the viral music video and beverage ad “We Want Your Pee” took off in popularity about a month ago. It’s a collaboration between Liquid Death and Jason Kelce’s Garage Beer, and it advocates that urine could address the cooling needs of data centers. It’s obviously a joke… but could it actually work? Host Morgan Sung talks to journalist Amanda Silberling about what she discovered when she looked into this question, and about the alternative cooling methods that might actually help everyone’s least favorite buildings use a little less H2O. Guest: Amanda Silberling, senior writer at TechCrunch Further Reading/Listening: OK, can we actually cool data centers with our pee? — Amanda Silberling, TechCrunch AI was supposed to win people over by now -- it hasn't — Sarah Perez, TechCrunch Major YouTube creators are facing backlash for accepting AI money — Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge Why OpenAI’s influencer trip backfired — The Art of Influence Americans’ views of data centers have turned more negative — Brian Kennedy, Pew Research NASA just recycled 98% of all astronaut pee and sweat on the ISS (engineers are thrilled) — Robert Lea, Space Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional production support from Cayla Mihalovich. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 23, 202651 min
AI, Artists, and the Future of Creative Work from Life, Automated | Close All Tabs Presents
While the Close All Tabs team churns out our next few episodes, we bring you this must-listen from Life, Automated. Generative AI is able to conjure new images, stories, and songs at lightning speed. So what does this mean for humans artists, storytellers and musicians? Life, Automated Host Jess Love explores what happens when AI enters creative markets. We learn that, at least today, key bottlenecks prevent AI from replicating some aspects of creativity. But there’s no guarantee those bottlenecks will exist tomorrow, raising vital questions about what we value in human labor. Life, Automated is a series about how to live, work and make decisions in a world increasingly shaped by machines. It is a production of the Ryan Institute on Complexity at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management and it is distributed by KQED. Host and Senior Director: Jess Love Producer: Steven Jackson Senior Producer: Jesse Dukes Music: Steven Jackson Associate Producer: Stacia Sliger Recording: George Christensen, Will Feeney Promotional help from Ananya Mallapragada and Charlotte Simmons. Guests: Ben Jones, economist, co-director of the Ryan Institute on Complexity Sam Goldberg, assistant professor of marketing, Stanford Yevgenia Nayberg, artist, illustrator, children’s book author Further Reading/Listening: Generative AI & Creative Goods: Market Expansion, Crowd-out, and Copyright — Samuel Goldberg, Stanford Graduate School of Business ‘Life, Automated’ explores how AI is reshaping our world — Roger Anderson, Northwestern Kellogg Life, Automated Podcast — KQED Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Additional production support from Pauline Bartolone. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 16, 202642 min
Save or Scroll: Fake NFL Players, Girly Coding, AI Music Scams and Community Garden Drama
Host Morgan Sung and the Close All Tabs team pull up the stories they can’t stop thinking about. From a fake NFL player catfishing women on dating apps, to femme creators reclaiming tech, indie musicians fighting AI music slop, and a comedian dishing out the juiciest community garden gossip — they’ve got a lot to chew on. Save or Scroll is our series where Morgan teams up with guests for a rapid-fire roundup of internet trends that are filling their feeds right now. At the end of each segment, they’ll decide: is the post just for the group chat, or should we save it for a future episode? Guests: Chris Egusa, senior editor for Close All Tabs Maya Cueva, producer for Close All Tabs Chris Hambrick, editor for Close All Tabs Lauren Yoon, intern for Close All Tabs Further Reading/Listening: Who would fall in love with a fake NFL player? Plenty of sensible people — Dave Schilling, The Guardian Programming patterns: the story of the Jacquard loom — Science and Industry Museum Spotify will label 'AI Persona' profiles and exclude their music from recommendations — Sarah Perez, TechCrunch OpenAI’s rogue AI model incident was worse than we thought — Hayden Field, The Verge How Hollywood Translated The Epic Poetry Of The Viral 'Zola' Thread — Mallory Yu, NPR Community Garden drama — Sarah Neiman, Instagram Read the Transcript here Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
- Sep 9, 202643 min
Close All Tabs Presents Snap Judgment: Runaway Car
Close All Tabs is on break this week, but we’re sharing a captivating episode about technology gone wrong from our friends at KQED’s Snap Judgment. A 19 year old picks up his family’s car from the auto mechanic shop, but a few minutes into the drive home the vehicle begins suddenly accelerating and won’t respond to any of his attempts to get it to stop. As his speed continues to build, state troopers have to catch up and think quickly to come up with a way to prevent a tragedy from happening on the road. The Snap Judgment podcast mixes real stories with original music to create cinematic, dramatic audio. Snap’s musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. Listen on any podcast platform. Website: https://snapjudgment.org/ Socials: https://www.instagram.com/snapjudgmentradio https://x.com/snapjudgment Further Reading/Listening: Vroom — Snap Judgment Podcast Email us at CloseAllTabs@KQED.org Follow us on Instagram and TikTok Credits: Close All Tabs is hosted by Morgan Sung. Our team includes producer Maya Cueva, editor Chris Hambrick and senior editor Chris Egusa who also composed our theme song and credits music. Our intern is Lauren Yoon. Additional music from APM. Audio engineering by Brendan Willard. Audience engagement support from Maha Sanad. Jen Chien is our Director of Podcasts. Ethan Toven-Lindsey is our Editor in Chief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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About Close All Tabs
Ever wonder where the internet stops and IRL begins? Close All Tabs breaks down how digital culture shapes our world through thoughtful insights and irreverent humor. From internet trends to AI slop to the politics of memes, Close All Tabs covers it all. How will AI change our jobs and lives? Is the government watching what I post? Is there life beyond TikTok? Host Morgan Sung pulls from experts, the audience, and history to add context to the trends and depth to the memes. And she’ll wrestle with as many browser tabs as it takes to explain the cultural moment we’re all collectively living. Morgan Sung is a tech journalist whose work covers the range of absurdity and brilliance that is the internet. Her beat has evolved into an exploration of social platforms and how they shape real-world culture. She has written for TechCrunch, NBC News, Mashable, BuzzFeed News and more.
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